


The Difference a Year Makes

by mypinkukulele



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, F/M, First War with Voldemort, Lily and James are happily in love, M/M, Marauders' Era, Post-Hogwarts, Romance, Sirius and Remus are in love but not so happily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-01
Updated: 2015-03-01
Packaged: 2018-03-15 21:43:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3463085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mypinkukulele/pseuds/mypinkukulele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>September 1st, 1980: The war had warped them all in the past year. LE/JP SB/RL</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Difference a Year Makes

_September 1st, 1979_

Everything went downhill after the wedding.

The ceremony was small and laughter-filled, everything that was lacking from their lives as of late. Lily wore a white sundress and seemed to float down the aisle with joy. James donned borrowed robes and swore as soon as he saw her. They couldn't keep their eyes off each other and Lily had to shove him when he burst into laughter in the middle of her vows. They said  _I do_  with an air of doing something extremely reckless and kissed to the soundtrack of their closest friends clapping and their best man catcalling.

For something to go downhill, it had to have started in a good place (which it most certainly did).

 

_September 8th, 1979_

The newly-married couple returned from a week long honeymoon to find undeniable change in the atmosphere. Peter was a bit quieter than usual. Kingsley never stopped by anymore. Remus and Sirius were quarreling nonstop. The McKinnons were dead. Someone was leaking information about the Order.

The surplus of sleepless nights Sirius spent on the Potter's couch was unsurprising but still unnerving. He couldn't bring himself to mind as much as he should have. It was easier tossing and turning on the Potter's threadbare sofa than wondering if the man he was sleeping next to was keeping secrets from him (or worse, wondering if Remus thought the same about him).

 

_October 31st, 1979_

Times were dark, but there was some source of light. There were some days where they all felt as though they were back in seventh year, playing Exploding Snap in the common room on the awful-patterned rug in front of the fire the Marauders had claimed as  _theirs_. Carving Halloween pumpkins (a more accurate description might be  _charming them to battle one another in an enthusiastic sort of wresting match_ ) was almost enough fun to ignore the fact that they weren't at the Hogwarts Halloween Feast, they were fighting for their lives.

Sirius and Remus went home to their flat together, happier than they had been seen in weeks.

 

_November 14th, 1979_

The four men went to Diagon Alley two weeks later on a day that Lily popped over to the Longbottom's for tea with Alice. They sat Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour (one of the only shops not boarded up) for hours, talking about nothing in particular and pointedly not mentioning anything about the war that they were swept up in. If any Marauder noticed that no one seemed to have an appetite, he said nothing. The time dripped by like the melting dessert as their eyes darted around the faces in front of them, looking for clues, answers, or anything at all.

When James clapped them all on backs and apparated home, he found his wife sitting on their couch that smelled way too much like Padfoot by now, staring blankly with a hand on her stomach. She looked up and the noise and informed him that Alice was pregnant. Her husband grinned in response. She then informed him that she's pregnant, too.

James's face went as blank as his wife's.

 

_November 15th, 1979_

James told his three closest friends the news in some dingy muggle bar and pretended to enjoy the whiskey Sirius bought him. He downed it without tasting a thing.

 

_November 28th, 1979_

Enough time had passed since finding out their family of two would be expanding that they were able to rationalize. James and Lily had thought this through.

She wouldn't go on missions for the Order until the baby was born. Lily and Alice would stay in and be head of strategizing, coming up with the crucial blueprints for plans to ambush Death Eaters and gain information. They would brush up on healing charms and be the unofficial Healers after missions didn't go as well as expected (which was more often than not). They had it all planned out and James was finally able to tell his wife that everything would be okay without tasting the metallic flavour of a lie. They would still have a normal life (or, as normal as possible given the circumstances).

The nineteen-year-olds were curled up with strong cups of tea when a giant, silvery phoenix swooped into the room with an urgent message from Dumbledore.

 

_November 29th, 1979_

Sirius took the news the worst. James couldn't possibly be expected just  _sit_  and  _hide_  for Merlin knows how long! He knew fully well that his best mate would do anything to sneak out. Prongs needed fresh air. He needed James.

Remus found his boyfriend's complaints than the news itself.  _Are you absolutely barking_ , he'd snarled at the sullen Black. Sirius then went on to exclaim how  _Prongs wouldn't be able to come out for their full moon excursions_  and  _was he even upset at all that he'd barely be seeing one of his best friends for possibly the rest of their lives?_

The glare that the young, scarred werewolf had fixed upon him was the coldest he'd ever experienced.  _This_ , Remus had spat,  _is bigger than any of us_.

Those seven little words had made Sirius sober up and finally grasp the gravity of the situation. He would have slept on the Potter's couch that night but  _no,_ he thought bitterly,  _they're in hiding now, Voldemort is after them and won't ever stop looking for them_.

He slept in the bed he and Remus shared, though neither of them felt like they belonged anymore.

 

_December 3rd, 1979_

Moony's claws tore into Padfoot's flank, both growling and snapping their jaws at one another. Wormtail scurried in, attempting to do anything to make them stop lunging at each other until Padfoot almost squashed him underfoot, managing to fling him against a tree trunk with a whip of his powerful tail.

When Remus awoke, covered in as many fresh cuts as Sirius, the pair simply exchanged a nod before grabbing each other's hand and holding tightly. (Almost too tight.)

 

_December 25th, 1979_

The Potter's table was void of conversation as the seven former Gryffindors sat and pointedly did not make eye contact.

Frank coughed twice.

Alice sniffled and blinked away the tears gathering in her eyes every so often.

Peter examined his left index finger, crooked from being broken when his rat form collided with the tree during the last full moon.

Lily feebly stirred a bowl of food she had excitedly prepared upon learning that her five closest friends would be allowed to visit for Christmas dinner.

James cleared his throat every few minutes as if to say something. (He never did.)

Sirius balanced on the back two legs of his chair, knowing Remus wouldn't be able to resist chiding him for it.

Remus didn't say anything.

Eventually they made conversation, pained at first but slowly becoming bearable. There were even a few bouts of laughter. Firewhisky was passed around to the men and Alice and Lily shared strong, herbal tea.

Peter was the first to leave, kissing both women on the cheek and shaking the men's hands. Before apparating away, he had pulled James in for a strong (but manly, they would both later claim) hug. The Longbottom's left next, Alice having to give a very drunken Frank a few good whacks in the right direction.

Sirius and Remus said their goodbyes as well, though it took a solid half hour for them to actually leave. The clatter of Sirius's chair falling back on it's front legs as he stood up was the last sound heard before the  _pop_  of apparation (and the choked sob from Lily).

The Potter's were alone in their little house in Godric's Hollow once more.

 

_January 1st, 1980_

They all hoped the new year would bring love, happiness, and an end to the horrible war they were smack dab in the middle of. (It would, though only some would be around to see it.)

 

_January 7th, 1980_

Dumbledore was the first person James and Lily had seen (besides each other) since Christmas, though with his arrival at their quaint little home had come with an icy sense a dread.

The Dark Mark had appeared in the sky above her parents house that morning. Lily didn't need to hear the rest (or blame what she did next on morning sickness), though she did the former.

She couldn't even attend the funeral.

 

_February 14th, 1980_

Old pages of  _The Daily Prophet_  had been transfigured into rose petals and the candles were lit and charmed to hover inside the house in Godric's Hollow. James led Lily into their bedroom after a beautiful dinner, both glowing with the love they were positive they still shared.

Remus and Sirius went to a dingy, poorly lit pub in Hogsmeade that night. Drinking until they couldn't see straight, they were able to smile without false sincerity for the first time in what seemed like ages. The laughter that echoed between the filthy walls came from dry throats obviously not used to the action. They stumbled back into their bedroom much too late at night, both desperately in love with the other (and the gnawing doubt of the other's affections in the back of their minds).

 

_March 27th, 1980_

James Potter had spent eight birthdays in a row with his best mates (five, if you only count the ones ending with them getting completely pissed). The tradition was broken on his twentieth.

His wife let him fly his new Nimbus 1700 which she had sent away for (and had delivered to the Longbottom's, who shrunk it and discreetly passed over to her while they came over on Christmas) in the living room, which helped to take his mind off it.

Not that his three best mates could ever be far from his mind.

 

_April 30th, 1980_

Wormtail didn't bother joining the werewolf and dog this month. He'd barely been noticed at all the past few quote-on-quote  _adventures_. Moony and Padfoot couldn't help but brutally attack each other every night. (In the morning, they always pretended it never happened.)

Alice found out she was having a boy.

 

_May 7th, 1980_

Alice and Frank had been advised to go into hiding as well, which they did as good-naturedly as possible in such a situation the previous week. This made communication between the two pregnant couples virtually impossible (without having someone play the part of an owl).

Lily found out she'd have a son as well, which was unsurprising to her. She had mentioned to all of the Marauders as soon as she found out about the pregnancy that she knew her little boy would be a fighter.

 

_June 25th, 1980_

It was quite a strange thought that they had graduated just two years previously. At Hogwarts they were kids. They were protected. They were recklessly in love and it was grand.

James and Lily were as protected as could be (though it felt anything but) with a kid on the way. Sirius and Remus were still in love (was it considered reckless if they both suspected the other of betrayal?).

 

_July 1st, 1980_

Due to stress, the redhead was put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy and was anything but pleased. Though risking a perfectly executed Bat-Bogey hex if he admitted it, James had been relieved. He was sure she almost left the house the week before when they were out of the Ice Mice that Remus bought her from Honeydukes last time he was in Scotland.

Sometimes it was the little things that made their confinement almost unbearable.

 

_July 27th, 1980_

The full moon that night had been a truce. Wormtail had come along to mediate and Moony and Padfoot seemed determined not snap at the other. With Lily so close to labor, none of them wanted to risk injury. She  _really_  didn't need something else to stress her out (James's insistence on making the nursery Gryffindor themed seemed to be doing the trick quite nicely).

 

_July 31st, 1980_

_We almost made it_ , Lily had sobbed, shedding tears for the first time since delivering her son that weren't joyous.  _If he wasn't born at the end of July, he wouldn't be targeted_.

James said nothing and held her tighter, watching his newborn's uncles hold him. (If he didn't know that was his own son, he would have thought that the family of three belonged together.)

He was sure that Harry would be targeted no matter what.

 

_August 15th, 1980_

The heat was so sweltering that they all left sticky fingerprints on the photo of Frank, Alice, and their newborn that they passed around. Peter, Remus, and Sirius has been able to come over for the first time since Lily gave birth. She really wished she could see Alice. (She wanted to make sure she wasn't mad for not minding their voluntary house arrest anymore. None of it just seemed to matter anymore; she had her husband and she had her son. What else could she possibly need?)

Sirius stole a glance at his boyfriend to find him staring back with an inscrutable expression. After arching an elegant brow to no response, he looked away. The only response he received was a calculated squeeze from Remus on the hand he was holding (which was enough. It had to be).

None of them could seem to hold Harry enough.

 

_September 1st, 1980_

The war had warped all of them in the past year.

 

**AN: Thanks for reading! Please tell me what you think!**


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